From Online to the Classroom: the Pandemic is Changing the way these Penn Staters Learn
STATE COLLEGE, P.a. — A pen scribbled frantically across the page of a notepad as a young college student jotted down her chemistry notes in the Hub Robeson center.
Wrinkles marred the girl’s forehead as she danced back and forth between pages of chemical symbols, each more complicated than the last.
A sigh left her lips as she erased something she had just written, the page crinkling beneath her hands.
A couple of minutes passed before the girl took a quick glance at the time. A small “crap,” left her mouth before she turned to collect her belongings and leave the building.
This girl is just one of the many students at Penn State that are experiencing the switch from online learning to the classroom, a switch that has proved perilous to several students.
Since the start of the pandemic, students across the world have felt the effects of social safety protocols on their college experience, and for these kids, their ability to focus in classroom settings.
From a lack of focus to struggles with mental illness, students are encountering countless obstacles caused by the pandemic that stands between them and their learning, and it is changing the way they absorb information.
Harder to Focus
Although learning through zoom has created many opportunities for teaching during the pandemic, some students like a sophomore in political science, Hayden D’Elena, noticed some side effects of the switch.
“I have seen my grades rise and drop throughout the pandemic, I think it’s because I am actually paying attention now,” D’Elena said. “After two years of not needing to memorize information for exams, I don’t score as well on fully in-person, closed note tests. It’s changed how I pay attention and what I pay attention to.”
She also explained that her freshman year of college was filled with stress and plenty of naps as her mental battery was constantly drained by online learning.
D’Elena was not alone in her change in focus. According to junior in psychology, Serena Swamipersaud, in the two years since the pandemic started, she noticed a significant change in her ability to concentrate.
“The pandemic was a big change for all of us,” Swamipersaud said. “My attention span is much shorter than it used to be and honestly sometimes I just need breaks during class.”
According to sophomore double major in psychology and criminology, Saloni Gauniyal, it is not just the time span of learning that causes a loss in focus.
“I feel I have a much shorter attention span and that I’ve become hyperaware of every little thing people do around me,” Gauniyal said. “People without masks on, people coughing or sneezing, it really draws my focus away from the instructor.”
Gauniyal said that she has become a germaphobe since the pandemic, continuing to wear her mask although the State College Borough lifted the mask mandate on March 21 and always keeping hand sanitizer on her person.
According to a survey conducted by OneClass Higher Education where 14,712 undergraduate college students were polled about the Fall 2020 semester, 85.4% saw a negative impact on their academic performance.
This survey was conducted over 232 colleges and universities in the United States, both private and public and it explained their findings were divided into two key reasons for this negative impact, the adjustment to learning online and mental health issues in students.
Change in grades
Lauren Murray, a junior double majoring in political science and psychology, explained that every semester since the fall of 2020 has been a struggle.
Murray said that before the pandemic she was mostly straight A’s, while now she maintains A’s and B’s and struggles to bridge the gap between student and professor caused by going online.
She also explained that the pandemic’s effect on her mental health did not help her grades, and along with newfound attention issues, Murray found herself struggling in the classroom.
Another student whose grades felt the effect of Covid-19 was sophomore chemistry major, Peyton Herring, who stated that her lack of focus makes it difficult to absorb what the professors teach during class.
“It’s been a challenge to keep my A’s, I’ve had to keep a strict routine with myself to stay on top of things,” Herring said. “I looked forward to going back to the classroom but sitting there for an hour or more of instruction can be difficult.”
Alongside Murray and Herring is sophomore psychology major, Madison Centanni, who believes that the switch to online learning made a big change in her freshman and sophomore years.
“I have such issues with focusing on my professors that I feel like my last two years of college were so stressful,” Centanni said. “I know it’s normal to go from A’s to B’s when you go from high school to college, but I honestly had a really hard time adjusting, and I think the pandemic made it worse.”
Dr. Cathleen Hunt, professor of psychology and Assistant Director of Undergraduate Education, had a lot to say about the way the pandemic has affected student learning.
“When the mind is riddled with emotional stress or overwhelmed by uncertainty, it can be difficult for the other parts of your brain to function,” Hunt said. “This can sometimes cause a sort of ‘brain fog,’ something my students have experienced. “
Dr. Hunt has dedicated the last 15 years of her life to the study of psychology, and she dedicated her focus to ethology and human behavior, human development, and behavior genetics.
With a master’s degree from California State University, Sacramento, and her Ph.D. at the University of Arizona, Dr. Hunt has had much experience studying human development.
She explained that in her experience working as an advisor, there has been a significant increase in students affected by mental illness, as well as trouble maintaining their grades.
“The pandemic affected so many things in my life, including my grades,” Centanni said. “It’s frustrating that I can no longer maintain focus, I feel like that is a skill the pandemic robbed me of.”
